The prior art shows various types of shutter apparatus and mounting arrangements for controlling the exposure of the patient's body to X-ray. Such examples of this art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,588,511; 3,069,549 and 3,048,700.
The present invention discloses an improved light chopper shutter apparatus for an X-ray machine including improved means for mounting and selectively moving the chopper mechanisms. One method of taking X-ray photographs consists of placing a patient in a standing or upright position for exposure to X-rays from a source spaced horizontally from the patient. The foregoing X-ray sources normally include means for collimating the beam such that the X-ray will tend to be parallel in a defined cone to penetrate the desired portion of the patient's body. The present invention is directed toward the use in this type of operation.
Certain problems have been experienced in obtaining clear and uniform X-ray pictures of a patient's body such as along the spinal column because of the differences in the size and density of the body areas along the spinal column.
An advantage of the present invention is that it provides shutter assembly for use with an X-ray source or machine for selectively controlling the X-rays penetrating the patient's body to thereby time the exposure of different areas of the body to the X-rays.
An additional advantage of the present invention is to provide a means to prevent over exposure of the less dense portions of the patient's body while allowing proper exposure to X-rays to the larger or more dense portions.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it can be easily mounted on a conventional X-ray machine; it can easily be removed for subsequent operations and further it can easily be operated and manipulated by the X-ray technician.
The foregoing and other obejcts, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein: